The recent availability of a computer based testing system such as that described in co-pending application no. 08/082,058 has substantially automated the entire process of standardized testing. A typical standardized testing arrangement using a computer based testing system is shown in FIG. 1. A central processing facility 1 provides the software development to support the computer based testing system and post processing activities. For instance, one test program such as a GRE (General Record Examination) may be developed, produced and packaged at the central processing facility 1. The computer based test is then transferred to one or more test centers 2. Each test center 2 has at least one computer workstation 3 on which the computer based test can be delivered to an examinee.
Examinees typically register to take a particular computer based test at which time the examinee schedules an appointment to take that test at a specified test center 2. When the examinee arrives at a test center 2 to take the test according to his or her appointment, a test administrator typically confirms the examinee's appointment and initiates the test. After an examinee has taken the test the examinee responses and other information recorded during the testing session are transferred to the central processing facility 1 for post processing, i.e., for statistical and analytical studies used in the development of new tests.
In contrast to classroom tests which are usually given to a small number of students and are scored by one person familiar with the activities of the students and conditions in the classroom during a testing session, standardized tests may be given to thousands of examinees at literally hundreds of test centers on different days and at different times. Thus, in a standardized testing environment it is crucial to be able to track conditions at a test center, such as problems with the hardware or software or power outages which may effect examinees' testing sessions. Additionally, when a test is not given at the same time and same place for all or most examinees it is necessary to provide additional security measures for maintaining the security and integrity of the computer based tests and any related test data including examinee responses. Therefore, the computer based testing system provides an administrative system to implement these functions.
Unfortunately, the administrative system and the test delivery system (which is the software that delivers the computer based test to the examinee and records examinee responses) reside together on a computer workstation 3 at a test center 2 shown in FIG. 1. Therefore, an administrator must perform many the administrative tasks on the computer workstation 3 prohibiting the use of the computer workstation 3 for testing. Moreover, most test centers 2 will provide a single testing room wherein the computer workstation 3 will be set up for computer based testing since it is usually logistically impractical to provide a private room for each computer workstation 3. Therefore, when each examinee arrives to take his or her scheduled test, the administrator must necessarily bring the examinee into the testing room where other examinees may be currently taking a computer based test, to check-in the examinee when he or she arrives, check the examinee's identification, capture the examinee's image if required, and initiate the test according to the examinee's appointment data. Such activities may be disruptive to other examinees taking a test particularly where the test includes timing constraints often required by standardized tests.
Furthermore, unexpected events occur at the testing center to which the administrator must quickly respond. For example, an examinee may call to make an appointment while the administrator is attending to a different administrative function. The administrator must be able to respond to the phone call without losing the work in progress. Computer based testing systems currently do not permit test administrators to quickly switch from one function to another in order to respond to events as they occur.
Furthermore, computer based testing systems currently do not permit different test developers to produce tests deliverable by the administrative systems provided as part of computer based testing system. For instance, Educational Testing Service develops, produces, and packages computer based GREs (Graduate Requirement Examination). An independent testing service, such as Sylvam Kee Systems (SKS), provides the scheduling and registration, the test centers, and the administrators at the test centers. The computer based testing system includes a test production system, a test delivery system, and a test administration system. Examples of such system are described in co-pending application Ser. No. 08/082,038 filed on Jun. 22, 1993 which is incorporated by reference herein. Testing services such as SKS, however, are currently unable to interface computer based tests produced by different entities without each entity providing a separate administrative system to perform the administrative functions discussed above.
Furthermore, computer based testing systems do not contain a feature that allows new tests to be added, old tests deleted, tests to be enabled or disabled, or ancillary system functions to be added, enabled or disabled easily, particularly if the administrative system is in operation.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a versatile and flexible administrative system on a workstation dedicated to administrative functions.